China proposed the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013, to improve connectivity and cooperation on a transcontinental scale. Quantifying impacts for a project as vast as the BRI is a major challenge. This report aims to help participating countries choose the kinds of investments and reforms that will best meet their development needs.

Large and sustained differences in economic performance across regions of developing countries have long provided motivation for fiscal incentives designed to encourage firm entry in lagging areas. Empirical evidence in support of these policies, however, has been weak at best. This paper undertakes a direct evaluation of the most prominent fiscal incentive policy in Brazil...